Everyone knows the original Bandai Baragon, right? It was one of the most popular (and certainly the most infamous) of all of Bandai's original 8" Toho kaiju. This figure was released in 1992, though I'm not sure exactly when. I got mine in the middle of that year so it's safe to assume the figure was a late winter/early spring release, which was common with Bandai figures during the Hesei era, when Godzilla's popularity in Japan was at it's peak.
At the time the Baragon was definitely one of the best Bandai Toho figures released up to that point, and no doubt one of the best Baragon figures released period. Aside from a somewhat smaller tail, the figure really is an almost exact likeness of it's screen counterpart. This is especially impressive when one considers how inaccurate some other Bandai toys were during this period, such as Gigan, Angilas, the 1991 King Ghidora and Megalon. The facial sculpt is full of terrific detail, the skin textures are painstakingly reproduced and even the baggy rubbery inner thighs of the monster costume are faithfully rendered. This was the kind of attention to detail that's much more commonly seen in the Bandai toys produced today. For 1992 it was really something else.
This Baragon comes from an era where almost every Bandai figure was bathed in metallic paint. Yet the gold sprays on the back, nails, ears and head actually look very classy, especially when combined with the little spot of metallic blue paint on the belly.
Also worth noting is the tag, which was the very last tag in the "Godzilla Collection" to feature the Destroy all Monsters photo and perforated lower section that was common in all Bandai up until then. Baragon - interestingly - was the only individually tagged Showa-era monster to see release in 1992.
Aside from slapping a new head on the figure and releasing it as Noronga in the Ultraman line, the Bandai Baragon was never re-released. It didn't show up in the 1995 Memorial Box nor was it scaled down for the Godzilla Island/Toho Kaiju series in the late 90s. And it turned out to be one of the earliest of the 1990s Bandai toys to see an incredible increase in demand after Bandai discontinued most of the line in the middle of the decade. Subsequently it was not uncommon to see prices for the figure sometimes reach as high as $200 and higher during the time when new collectors were getting into the hobby thanks to G-Fan and the various conventions that started popping up in this country.
These days demand for the toy - and 1990s Bandai toys as a whole - has fallen off a great deal. It's possible these days to find the figure for $100 or less, even ones with attached tags. Regardless, the toy is still acknowledged as one of Bandai's very best and is essential for anyone serious about the earlier days of the line.
